VisitEngland to award Bath Christmas Market with a Quality Assured Visitor Attraction Plaque

  • The first Christmas Market in the UK to receive such accreditation
  • Chairman of VisitEngland, Viscountess Penelope Cobham to present Bath Tourism Plus with Quality Rose Marque

2012-12-07 — /travelprnews.com/ — Bath Tourism Plus, the destination marketing organisation for Bath and the surrounding area, is to receive a Quality Rose Marque from National Tourist Board VisitEngland for its Christmas Market on Friday 7th December 2012.

Based on the findings of an independent assessor from the Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance Scheme (VAQAS), the results confirm the high standard provided and verify that Bath is the FIRST Christmas Market in the country to receive such an accolade. For this occasion, Chairman of VisitEngland, Lady Cobham will present Bath Tourism Plus’ Chairman Matt Davis and Chief Executive Nick Brooks Sykes with the Quality Rose Marque.

To merit the award of VisitEngland’s accreditation of ‘Quality Assured Visitor Attraction’ the assessor followed the whole of the visitor journey which even included the promotion of the Market.  It was found that both the leaflet and website dedicated to the Christmas Market were well designed and contained all the information required to plan a visit to Bath at Christmas.

But it was the market’s overall “very good quality experience” that impressed the assessor.  Scoring highly for enquiries made to the Visitor Information Centre, staff were reported as being knowledgeable, enthusiastic and able to promote a range of services such as the Park and Ride.

In addition to the high standards achieved in all areas it was the attention to detail that impressed the assessor the most – the cleanliness, standard of offering amongst the stall holders, quality of the stalls, stallholders’ merchandise and the layout of the Market around the centre of the city.

VisitEngland’s Chairman remarked: “I’m delighted to be in the beautiful city of Bath to present Bath’s Christmas Market with the Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance Scheme (VAQAS) accreditation. The findings tell us that Bath Christmas Market is of a very high standard that provides visitors with a memorable and well managed experience.   However one of the obvious strengths of the Christmas Market that really stood out is the effective promotion that has made the Market as popular as ever which in turn brings visitors back year after year, benefitting not only the Market but also the City.”

Chief Executive of Bath Tourism Plus, Nick Brooks Sykes added: “The Bath Christmas Market has a massive impact on the city – it is worth over £11million to the local economy – and the overwhelming majority of our 350,000 visitors report high levels of satisfaction with their visit. I am delighted that the high quality experience of Bath Christmas Market has been officially recognised by the inspection by VisitEngland.”

ENDS

Note to Editors

For further information please contact Audra McSherry at Bath Tourism Plus on 01225 322434 or email: audra_mcsherry@bathtourism.co.uk

Bath Christmas Market

Bath Christmas Market 2012 will be in operation for 18 days (22nd Nov – 9th December 2012). Bath Tourism Plus is the company responsible for the marketing and operation of Bath Christmas Market, which attracts approximately 350,000 visitors per year to Bath.

For more information about Bath Christmas Market, visit:www.bathchristmasmarket.co.uk

Bath Tourism Plus

Working with the public and private sectors, Bath’s destination marketing organisation, Bath Tourism Plus, takes full responsibility for co-ordinating the work of a busy tourist information centre, the marketing of Bath and the surrounding area to leisure and business travellers, PR activity to attract the nation’s top travel writers, a conference office, and development of Bath’s official destination website www.visitbath.co.uk

About VisitEngland

•           VisitEngland is the country’s national tourist board. We work in partnership with the industry to develop the visitor experience across England, plan national tourism strategy, grow the value of tourism in England and provide advocacy for the industry and our visitors

•           Our work is underpinned by robust research and customer insights. You can access the latest in-depth market intelligence and statistics on www.visitengland.org/insight-statistics

•           For corporate information see www.visitengland.org and for consumer information see www.visitengland.com